Cultural Research

Poststructuralist and Postmodern

Approaches

Poststructuralism

Poststructuralism
In order to understand
poststructuralism adequately, we first
need a basic grasp of structuralism
Poststructuralism was in some ways a
reaction to, and in some ways a
continuation of structuralism

Structuralism
Structuralism was one of the greatest
intellectual movements of the first twothirds of the twentieth century
Its founding father was the Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure

Saussure
Saussure saw language as operating
on two levels:
parole: the actual things we say, write etc
in our everyday lives
langue: the rules - in other words
structure - of the language

Saussure
Parole has a material existence - we
hear it or see it - and is abundant,
varied and unpredictable (we can never
be absolutely certain what anyone will
say)

Saussure
Langue is a finite set of rules which linguists
deduce from their analysis of parole
It has no material existence as such
(language exists only as parole) and is
relatively unchanging
The rules of English grammar, for example,
have changed little over the past two
centuries

Structuralism
Structure, then, is a set of abstract
rules underlying the surface variety of
human life
Structures are relatively stable and, if
we go deep enough, universal

Structuralism
American linguist Noam Chomsky has
argued there is a deep-structure
Universal Grammar underlying all
languages
He claims we are all born with this
Universal Grammar programmed into
our genes, which explains the ability of
any child to learn any language

Structuralism
These ideas were taken up by scholars
working in a wide range of fields, and
applied to their area of study
One of the most famous structuralists
was the French anthropologist Claude
Lvi-Strauss

Claude Lvi-Strauss

Structuralism
One of his best known studies was of
the myths of primitive peoples
He claimed to be able to isolate
universal structures among the great
variety of myths found in many different
parts of the world

Structuralism
He reduced these underlying structures
to quasi-mathematical formulas. For
example, the basic structure of myth is
expressed as:
A
non-A

non-B

Structuralism
For example, a battle fought fairly (A)
would result in a better world (B),
whereas a battle fought unfairly (not A)
would result in a worse world (not B)
And so on for good kings versus bad
kings, excess versus moderation etc.
etc.

Poststructuralism
Like structuralism, poststructuralism
was French in origin, though it too
spread to be a truly international
phenomenon

Poststructuralism
Its most important figures are:
Jacques Lacan (1901-1981)
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004)
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Poststructuralism
Lacan developed an alternative set of
psychoanalytic theories to those offered by Freud
(who, though predating the structuralist
movement, was to some extent claimed by
them)
Derrida developed the method of textual analysis
known as deconstruction which was not
interested in universal rules underlying the text,
but in the actual architecture of the text itself

Poststructuralism
Foucault developed a theory of
discourse which is still used by many in
the academic field (including myself)
In the following few slides I will focus on
Foucault, since he is the
poststructuralist with whom I am most
familiar

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault
Foucaults main works were:
Madness and Civilisation
The Birth of the Clinic
The Order of Things
Discipline and Punish
The History of Sexuality

Michel Foucault
Reality is constituted through discourse
For example, madness is not something
which simply is across all times and space
Madness is constituted by discourses of
madness, and these vary historically and
geographically
Man (and sexuality) were invented in the
19th century!

What is discourse?
Discursive formations are systems
of dispersion - they have no single
author and are made up of
statements emerging from a wide
range of sources

What is discourse?
While language is the main
expressive vehicle for discourses,
they can be carried by any
expressive form: photography,
painting, cartoons, architecture,
statuary, music, dance

Doing Discursive Analysis

Discourse analysis involves the
analysis of a large number of texts,
from different sources, in different
styles, formats and so on (not just
language but also images, music, art,
dance, architecture, statuary and so
on)

Doing Discursive Analysis

It involves not a search for underlying
abstract rules, but the isolation of
actually recurring patterns and themes
These patterns are then related to nondiscursive elements revealing
relationships of power and contestation

Foucault and Knowledge

Knowledge is not universal, but is
generated within the framework of the
dominant episteme
The greatest event of the late 18th
century was not the French Revolution
but a change in the episteme which
affected all subsequent knowledge

Foucault and Knowledge

Towards the end of his life (1980s)
Foucault sensed that the then current
episteme was reaching the point of
exhaustion
This new episteme - if we accept that
such a thing exists - would be the
postmodern episteme

The Postmodern
Critique

The Postmodern Critique

The postmodern critique is an extraordinarily
radical critique of knowledge
The Enlightenment Project is not only over, it
has ended in failure
The Enlightenment Project was also an alibi
for the expansionary programmes of the
Great European Powers

Postmodernism
The Grand Narratives have collapsed
and have been replaced by small
narratives

Loss of historicity
History as a treasure-trove of styles,
pastiche, loss of any sense of
process/struggle, the sense of time
displaced by a sense of space

The decentred self

The disappearance of the bounded
self, schizo/multiphrenic identities, the
cult of sensation, the emergence of a
new sensorium, the aestheticisation
of everyday life

Postmodernism and Art

Collapse of Boundaries between High
and Low Art
Mixing of styles, quoting, intertextuality,
reflexivity, the suspect nature of
originality

Postmodernism and Marx

The Marxist view of postmodernism
(Frederic Jameson): Postmodernism is
the culture of the latest (globalising)
phase of capitalism, which has eroded
the authority structures of the nationstates

Postmodernism and Power

Have knowledge and power become
sites of play?
Or has the struggle for knowledge and
power simply assumed new forms?